Independent learning: taking notes
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m studying math, physics, and cosmology. As I study newe material, I started taking notes— at first on paper, but I quickly realized that was going to work very well. So I tried moving to a word processor. But given my subject matter, there’s a lot of math involved, and I quickly realized that none of the word processors I was aware of handled math very well. However, there’s a tool call LaTeX, which is a software package (free, and open source) that was designed for handling math.
LaTeX is really wonderful if you don’t mind using textual commands (imbedded in the text of the document) to control formatting of the contents such as equations, tables, and pretty much everything. Since I have a background in computer programming, this isn’t a problem for me. (But being a programmer isn’t a requirement!) LaTeX gives you tremendous control over almost everything related to document preparation. It can automatically generate a table of contents (based on section title commands). It can automatically generate an index if you use commands to flag content you want to appear in the index. If you create a separate file with commands to describe other documents you want to cite, it can also automatically create a bibliography; and the style of the bibliography can be made to match the style required by most any journal or publisher by simply replacing the bibliography style file. It can imbed graphics files. It can even allow you to create hypertext links. And much more.
Turning the text files into a readable document requires you to run the LaTeX software each time you make changes to the text files; it’s not ‘WYSIWYG’ (pronounced ‘wizywig’ and standying for ‘what you see is what you get’) like most modern word processors. And there’s a learning curve. But none of that bothers me because I’ve used LaTeX before to create academic papers, and even a reference manual for some open source software I once wrote.
One of the great things about LaTeX is that if you restructure the document, each time you run the software, all the automatically generated stuff gets generated again. Another one that I really like is you can use the embedded command language to define ‘macros’ — which creates new commands that you can use to simplify repetitive tasks. Macros have been used to extend the LaTeX command language, and many users have contributed libraries that extend LaTeX in various ways, such as simplifying writing plays, or poetry, or even sheet music.
So I’ve been using LaTeX to maintain my study notes for over two years now, and the document is approaching 600 pages now. My notes document has greatly facilitated my studying. Using the table of contents or the index, I can pretty rapidly find something I want to review, and the hypertext linking allows me to quickly hop back and forth among related subjects. I’ve significantly restructured in numerous times. And I’ve also relaized that the process of putting new material into my notes has become an integral part of my learning process!
That’s probably more than enough about LaTeX. In future posts, I plan to say more about the contents of my notes.